This disclosure relates to polycarbonates, their methods of manufacture, and articles formed therefrom.
Polycarbonates are engineering thermoplastics used in the manufacture of articles for a wide variety of applications, included automotive to electrical to construction. Because of their wide industrial applicability, there is a continuing interest in the manufacture of novel polycarbonates, in particular polycarbonates that can be readily modified to provide different properties. One approach to obtaining such polycarbonates has been to incorporate double bond (olefin) functionality
One approach to incorporating olefin functionality in polycarbonates uses olefin-containing monomers or chainstoppers in low-temperature interfacial polymerization processes. Drawbacks of this approach include the relatively high cost and lack of commercial availability of the unsaturated monomers or chainstoppers. In addition, use of interfacial polymerization processes adds additional cost and complexity when incorporating such olefin-containing monomers and chainstoppers into polycarbonates prepared by the melt transesterification method.
Accordingly, there remains a need for polycarbonates containing olefin functionality, an in particular methods for preparing such polycarbonates. It would be particularly advantageous if such methods used low cost materials that are readily commercially available.